Significant Learning: Effectively Using Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs in a Critical Writing Class

Using film in class is nothing new. Film in higher education has been used to explore content, ideas, context, social or political issues, highlight discussions and model certain behaviors, among other things. For years I have used film to highlight rhetorical appeals, audience awareness, and logical fallacies, or to set up critical thinking discussions and writing assignments. We might watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail, for example, and highlight the various logical fallacies that are present; however, there seemed to be a lack of “deeper learning.” While these types of assignments focusing on one specific student learning outcome like logical fallacies are positive in many respects, I always felt they were superficial and the lesson was forgotten as soon as students left the classroom. Students were not carrying their recognition of fallacies over to other texts or their own writing. That changed when I found a clip from Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs

Asynchronous Electronic Feedback for Faculty Peer Review: Formative Feedback That Makes a Difference

This case study at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University - Daytona Beach campus (ERAU-DB) describes the process of facilitating a faculty peer observation model that uses asynchronous electronic feedback through the Teaching Partners program offered by the Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence (CTLE). This practical, hybrid model of peer observation builds on practices found in current models and uses digital recording and web-based software to encourage faculty feedback that will positively impact their pedagogical practice. The results of this study suggest to truly cultivate a dialogue between faculty and/or education developer in the process, the goals should be clearly stated, the reflection should be clearly defined using the current research when possible, and the process should be modeled in practice. This comparative analysis also suggests that the hybrid model of evaluation, coupled with the implementation of video asynchronous electronic commenting system, resulted in increased faculty reflection and impacted classroom instruction

Evolving: Using Science Fiction to Engage Students in Evolutionary Theory

Evolutionary biology is not well-understood by a majority of the population. Many misperceptions and misconceptions exist as well as outright resistance to the theory. Various teaching and learning strategies have been tried in an attempt to involve students in exploring the theory, with mixed results. The use of science fiction to engage students in this area has been sparse, and virtually no quantitative assessment of learning with the method has been done. Using Origins, an anthology based on evolution, we created an interdisciplinary teacher’s resource manual that will be offered free to teachers. This paper examines some of the difficulties biology teachers face in the classroom. It also explores the importance and benefit of interdisciplinary thinking and the significance of stories on student thinking. Future research opportunities are considered

What Do We Learn From Formative Feedback? A Comparison of Weekly Reflection Surveys to a Midterm Survey in a Graphical Communication Course

The authors report on a pedagogical feedback strategy employed in a first-year engineering graphics course, which implemented a flipped classroom model for self-regulated learning. Class time was reserved for activities and content clarifications. To encourage self-regulated learning and just-in-time teaching modifications, students completed a weekly mixed methods survey in the fall semester of 2022. Over each semester, 12 weeks of student data were collected. To further understand students’ concerns and capture potentially different voices, an anonymous midterm survey was administered by the Center of Teaching and Learning Excellence (CTLE) in the middle of the fall semester of 2022. A comparison of weekly reflection surveys to the midterm survey offered the instructor an opportunity to further understand the effectiveness of weekly reflection surveys and identify how to use weekly reflection surveys more efficiently

Instituting Large Scale Change at a Research Intensive University: A Case Study

This paper uses Bolman and Deal’s four analytic frames to examine the difficulty of instituting large-scale change at one research-intensive university. In this case, the partially successful attempt to implement a new curriculum for undergraduates at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University is explored. The authors theorize that if an institution is to attempt a far-reaching, innovative transformation, it must have consistent leadership and the commitment of middle managers. Otherwise well-crafted plans are doomed to meet resistance

Impact of Critical Narrative on Students’ Abilities to Recognize Ethical Dilemmas in Engineering Work

This study aims to investigate the impact of exposure to critical narratives on students\u27 abilities to recognize ethical dilemmas and broader impacts in engineering work. Critical narratives are place-based stories that engage students and help them enhance their critical thinking skills by making connections between the narratives, broader impacts of engineering work, and their responsibility to address these issues. The effectiveness of the critical narrative intervention was assessed by implementing discussion-based assignments around three critical narratives, which required students to listen to the narrative, respond to focus questions, engage with their peers, and reflect on the process. The intervention was completed by 58 students as part of their ethics module in a senior capstone design engineering course, while a comparison group of 60 students did not receive the intervention. Both groups completed a project-group discussion assignment where they were asked to identify and discuss ethical dilemmas and broader impacts encountered while working on their capstone design projects. Researchers developed a 5-point rubric to evaluate the responses to focus questions and reflections on the process. Results indicated that the study group that received the intervention achieved higher average scores on each of the three criteria that were evaluated, but lower scores on the reflection component. The accompanying paper will discuss the theoretical motivation relying on critical narratives, deployment of the intervention, and statistical analysis of the results

Humanities Professors’ Conceptions of Assessment in General Education

This qualitative case study used Brown’s (2008) Conceptions of Assessment as a lens to better understand how humanities faculty are engaging the assessment movement in their general education programs. Much of the research on this topic suggests that there is a great deal of resistance to assessment in the humanities; however, my findings suggest it is not a resistance to assessment as a concept, but to the implementation of the assessment process that is most discouraging to faculty. Findings suggest that the practical use of the assessment data beyond reporting was absent. Further, the lack of shared governance in the process negatively affected faculty engagement with general education assessment. There are some very practical and not overly burdensome techniques to address many faculty concerns and to create an assessment program that is not only beneficial to the institution, but more importantly, useful to the students and faculty. Faculty and administrators in higher education can find relevance in this study’s findings to improve general education assessment processes, and in garnering faculty buy-in and support for assessment initiatives. Audience members will be encouraged to share their experiences and discuss successful strategies used to encourage quality assessment

Evolving: Using science fiction to engage students in evolutionary theory. Evos: The Journal of the Evolutionary Studies Consortium

ABSTRACT Evolutionary biology is not well-understood by a majority of the population. Many misperceptions and misconceptions exist as well as outright resistance to the theory. Various teaching and learning strategies have been tried in an attempt to involve students in exploring the theory, with mixed results. The use of science fiction to engage students in this area has been sparse, and virtually no quantitative assessment of learning with the method has been done. Using Origins, an anthology based on evolution, we created an interdisciplinary teacher's resource manual that will be offered free to teachers. This paper examines some of the difficulties biology teachers face in the classroom. It also explores the importance and benefit of interdisciplinary thinking and the significance of stories on student thinking. Future research opportunities are considered